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Whats next?

Ok now i'm going into winter with 15 healthy hives and would like to make my bee's mite resistant and i'm not sure witch way to go . Should i bee looking and studying queen bee breeders for Varroa Mites and Viruses resistant lines
or should i just keep breeding my bee's and only use my queens ? I know i'll be making nucs and catching swarms to keep my numbers up so i can lose some but will my bees one day become mite resistant? The steps i'm taking this winter is to read all i can about the Varroa Mites and Viruses and i think i'm the only beekeeper for miles and the bee's i have now i made off three hives i had last year i bought from a cemical free beekeeper and 3 nucs i got from another cemical free beekeeper this year the rest i made I had 19 last month and i let the weak{4}ones die out mite pressure i'm quessing one was queen problem.
So as of right now i have 15 cemical free hives and would like to keep it that way .
I'm just a hobbyist and realy don't care about money i'ts about the bee's plus i have a great apiary with time to spend in the bee yard so what do ya all think ?
Witch way would you go?
Thank you.

Re: Whats next?

Well I'm in the same position you're in,i have 17 hives including my nucs.I have been catching swarms,raising a few queens and buying VSH queens when i can.I do not treat and try to keep a few more hives than i need to make up for losses.This year has been the the worst as far as the mites go.So far three down and i expect to lose a few more over winter.As for queens i would bring in some VSH queens to help speed things up.

Re: Whats next?

I think you are on the right track.Keep catchin those feral swarms and doing splits off of the ferals that make it. I like to make splits out of 2 plus year old hives. If you dont have any other beeks close to you and the feral population is good you should have good luck keeping you bees drug free. Do you run foundation or are you foundationless.

Re: Whats next?

Originally Posted by wadehump

I think you are on the right track.Keep catchin those feral swarms and doing splits off of the ferals that make it. I like to make splits out of 2 plus year old hives. If you dont have any other beeks close to you and the feral population is good you should have good luck keeping you bees drug free. Do you run foundation or are you foundationless.

I have all foundation for now this is only my third year and my first year was a floop and this past year was a big year for me i built my numbers up and learned how to make queens /splits/ and hive swarms. So this coming spring i'm going to try foundationless LANG. and a TBH my wife built me one and it's perfact this coming year will be fun i'm sure.

Re: Whats next?

Glock have you read the paper by Barbara Locke on Varroa. If you havent pm me your email and I will send it to you. I have it on pdf and can only email it, I dont know how to post a link on it. But there is a link of it somewhere on here, thats were I got it from. Steve

Re: Whats next?

I think you're on the right path. I am convinced our "silver bullet" to survivorship is defeating varroa. I'm also of the opinion that if we can keep varroa out of the hives and off our bees, all that other junk like nosema, viruses, what we think is CCD, susceptibility to pesticides, etc., will be greatly minimized.

I utilized a lot of IPM stuff, but my primary influence is feral stock and queens raised from the bees that are best suited to my area...and can withstand my incompentence and mismanagement. I still use formic MAQS and have not copitulated to the treatment free camp.

Yes, there will be losses, which I despise and mourn, which mostly happens during the winter. I think that's why the good Lord created swarming and taught us how to make splits in the spring.

Re: Whats next?

If you can, grow your own. For a lot of reasons including what you based your post on. In my mind, the long term solution for varroa is to let bees develop their own natural resistance to mites as opposed to addressing the mite problem by treating the mites themselves.

"My wife always wanted girls. Just not thousands and thousands of them......"